Geriot and his University of Richmond teammates yesterday reached the Atlantic 10 championship game. The Spiders have not played in the final since the 2001-02 season, but that’s not the reason Geriot, David Gonzalvez and Ryan Butler attach such significance to this championship appearance. The first year that trio played together at Richmond, the Spiders finished 8-22. Things looked bleak. No one was talking about championships.

They were bouncing off the walls. The University of Richmond’s players stayed poised through the obligatory postgame handshake lines following yesterday’s overtime conquest of Xavier, then headed for their locker room through a narrow corridor of Boardwalk Hall. There, they started celebrating by chest-bumping, side-bumping and back-bumping everything within range, including the walls.

Behind Boardwalk Hall’s baskets are some temporary bleachers, then a lot of space. Depth perception issues could cause shooting problems. Or maybe not. Nine first-half 3-pointers got the University of Richmond in position for its 77-72, late-night extermination of Massachusetts in the quarterfinals of the Atlantic 10 Conference tournament. Last night’s game didn’t start until nearly 9:30 p.m., and ended at 11:28 p.m., following a rally by UMass, which scored 51 second-half points.

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J.—Terrell Holloway hit a go-ahead three-point play with 1:22 to play and No. 24 Xavier rallied from a 15-point deficit in the final 10 minutes to defeat Dayton 78-73 in the quarterfinals of the Atlantic 10 Conference tournament last night. The game between the longtime Ohio rivals had somewhat of a controversial ending when Rob Lowery was called for a technical foul with 33.6 seconds to play for taking a swipe at Holloway after the guard knocked the ball out of his hands after a time out with Xavier ahead 70-68.

If postseason basketball is all about guard play and tight games, the University of Richmond appears to be in great shape. Spiders junior guard Kevin Anderson on Sunday was named Atlantic 10 Conference player of the year. UR senior guard David Gonzalvez was named to the second team. Each is among UR’s top 10 all-time scorers. Anderson, of Atlanta, has 1,482 points. Gonzalvez, of Marietta, Ga., has 1,659.

University of Richmond junior guard Kevin Anderson yesterday was named the 2009-10 Atlantic 10 Conference player of the year in voting conducted among the league’s 14 head coaches. The Spiders entered the A-10 for 2001-02 and never before had a player make first-team all-conference. UR’s Chris Mooney was a candidate for coach of the year after leading the Spiders to a 13-3 A-10 record and a 24-7 mark overall. That award went to Temple’s Fran Dunphy.

UPPER MARLBORO, Md. - Atlantic 10 player of the year Amber Harris had 15 points and 11 rebounds to lead No. 5 Xavier to its 16th straight victory, a 61-52 win over Richmond in the quarterfinals of the conference tournament yesterday. April Phillips added 17 points and Special Jennings scored 10 of her 12 points in the first half for the Musketeers (25-3), who reached a semifinal against Charlotte or Saint Joseph’s.

Based on Wednesday night’s Atlantic 10 Conference results, the University of Richmond clinched a bye in the first round of the league tournament. The Spiders (11-3, 22-7) clinch at least a share of third place—UR’s best finish since joining the A-10 for 2000-01—and no worse than the No. 3 seed in the conference tournament. The top four regular-season finishers earn first-round byes. Xavier, Temple, Richmond and Saint Louis clinched first-round byes for this year’s A-10 tournament, which opens on Tuesday at campus sites. The Spiders will play a quarterfinal game next Friday at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, N.J.

Again and again yesterday, a capacity crowd of 10,250 at the Cintas Center stood, turned up the volume, sensed the kill. Xavier went ahead by a handful of points on a few first-half occasions and repeated the surges in the second half. These were cues for the visitors to fade. That happens here often. The University of Richmond didn’t fade, even when trailing by five early in the second overtime. The Atlantic 10 Conference showdown of leaders featured contrasting styles, and the 23rd-ranked Spiders exhibited toughness and shooting skill to hang with bigger, more physical XU, which has won the past three A-10 regular-season titles.

When you are the nation’s 25th-ranked team, sit in first place in the Atlantic 10 and stand 27th in the Ratings Percentage Index, you are supposed to handle an inferior opponent on your home court with little difficulty. And that’s what the Richmond Spiders did to the Fordham Rams. The Spiders are No. 25 in the country, lead the A-10 standings and hold the 27th spot in the RPI, the measurement used to select at-large teams and seed every team in the NCAA tournament. All of that could have become tainted had Fordham made a game of it last night or even pulled off an upset.

Go-ahead three-pointer by David Gonzalvez with 1:21 remaining last night propels Spiders to key 69-67 Atlantic 10 road victory over Rhode Island, which lost at home for only the second time this season.

The University of Richmond survived a tour of Handcheck Hell yesterday. Ryan Butler’s 3-pointer from the left corner with 26 seconds left (:03 on the shot clock) broke a tie and elevated the Spiders to a 62-57 Atlantic 10 Conference victory over George Washington in a game that included 52 fouls and 49 free throws. Before 3,298 at the Smith Center, the Spiders (4-2, 15-6) captured their second league road win in three tries by hitting jumpers down the stretch, Butler’s being the biggest. In the final 5:49, Richmond made four 3-pointers and a shot from just inside the arc. Of those five baskets, Kevin Anderson (21 points) was responsible for three.

ST. LOUIS—Saint Louis coach Rick Majerus is no fan of the school’s affiliation with the Atlantic 10 Conference. Too much travel, too expensive, too hard on the student-athletes. If Majerus had his way, the school would sacrifice a bit of prestige, put the athletes first and play in a league closer to home. “We belong in the Missouri Valley, if we care about the kids’ academics,“ Majerus said after the Billikens whipped Fordham 75-48 on Wednesday.

Massachusetts kept taking the ball inside. Darrius Garrett kept sending it back. The University of Richmond’s 6-9 sophomore set a school and Atlantic 10 Conference record with 14 blocks—two fewer than the NCAA record—as the Spiders won 70-63 last night in overtime. The volume of the Robins Center crowd of 4,019 grew with each rejection by Garrett, a resident of Atlanta who hasn’t started a college game.

Play a Rick Majerus team and brace for a defensive game. Majerus’ Saint Louis Billikens clamped down on the University of Richmond yesterday, dealing the Spiders a 63-58 loss before 8,134 at Chaifetz Arena in Atlantic 10 Conference competition. Though UR (1-1, 12-5) was facing an opponent with all freshmen and sophomores, though SLU was picked to finish 12th in the 14-team league, though SLU (1-0, 10-5) played without starting center Willie Reed due to a disciplinary suspension, the Spiders couldn’t gain offensive traction in the second half.